Sometimes It’s Rational to Move to New York

Valley rumormonger Valleywag mongs the rumor that PayPal founder and VC/hedge fund manager Peter Thiel is moving to New York to be closer to his current beau. Now read carefully:

An acquaintance of Thiel scoffs at the idea that Thiel would do anything for romantic reasons. Thiel, he says, is an utterly rational thinker. But the heart is capable of its own rationalizations. The mere possibilty that Thiel might maximize happiness, rather than profit, is a comforting thought.

You see thinking of this type again and again in our culture and society – doing things for love is irrational; self-interest is greed – as if there is some wall separating the things we do for ourselves and the things we do for others.

A rational thinker has to fool himself into doing something for love. You really have to be altruistic – irrationally disinterested in yourself – to be a good person. Au contraire. Doing things for love is part of the rational pursuit of self-interest, and it’s good.

Jim Harper / Jim is the Director of Information Policy Studies at The Cato Institute, the Editor of Web-based privacy think-tank Privacilla.org, and the Webmaster of WashingtonWatch.com. Prior to becoming a policy analyst, Jim served as counsel to committees in both the House and Senate.